Despite efforts by Logan Lake RCMP and B.C. Wildlife Park, the bald eagle was too injured to recover.
Image Credit: SUBMITTED- Logan Lake RCMP
Republished July 11, 2019 - 1:47 PM
Original Publication Date July 11, 2019 - 11:34 AM
KAMLOOPS - Although Logan Lake RCMP and the B.C. Wildlife Park both hoped for a better ending, a bald eagle they tried hard to save had to be put down.
On June 30, the Logan Lake RCMP received a call about an injured eagle on the side of the road at Mammette Lake Road and Foley Road.
Const. Ryan Dell, acting detachment commander for the Logan Lake RCMP said in a release he found the bald eagle unwilling or unable to leave the area. After borrowing a dog crate from a cell-guard and getting some help, they were able to capture the eagle.
The animal was cared for overnight at the RCMP detachment and brought to the B.C. Wildlife Park in Kamloops the next day.
Paige McKnight, animal health technologist at the park, says the injuries were too extensive for the bird to recover.
“It had a fractured leg that was quite infected and the legs didn’t have pain response any longer so that’s something that just wouldn’t recover. It was probably an infection that led to nerve damage. The left wing was also fractured and had an infected wound on it, so it was likely hit by a car,” McKnight says.
McKnight notes that eagles aren’t often brought into the Wildlife Park at this time of year, unless it is an injury such as this. She says normally they are brought in when struggling with a scarce food supply.
“We often get them brought in later in the season, in the fall, when conditions are getting a little harder for them,” McKnight says.
RCMP officers respond to incidents ranging from theft to quarrels, but it’s somewhat unusual for them to rescue and care for a bald eagle overnight.
“As a Mountie, you wear many hats,” Dell says in a release. “Some days you are a career counsellor or a conflict mediator, other days a traffic enforcer or a homicide investigator, some days you are an animal wrangler. Whatever the call, we take them all.”
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